Peter Anthony Motteux
Encyclopedia
Peter Anthony Motteux born Pierre Antoine Motteux, was an English author, playwright, and translator. Motteux was a significant figure in the evolution of English journalism in his era, as the publisher and editor of The Gentleman's Journal, "the first English magazine," from 1692 to 1694.
, he was a French Huguenot
who came to England in 1685 after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes
. At first he made his living as an auctioneer; by 1706 he maintained a shop in Leadenhall Street
, selling imports from China, Japan, and India, and (in his own words) "silks, lace, linens, pictures, and other goods." He also held a position with the Post Office in the first decade of the 18th century.
Among his miscellaneous works, A Poem in Praise of Tea (1701) is arguably the best known. Motteux's end was controversial, and may have constituted a case of autoerotic asphyxiation: "His death in a bawdy house was thought to be suspicious, and caused a good deal of legal disturbance." Five people were tried for his murder, but were acquitted. He was survived by his widow Priscilla, two sons and a daughter.
's translation of Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel
. Books I and II of Urquhart's translation of Rabelais had been published in 1653
; Motteux (with outside help) revised these, completed Urquart's translation of Book III, and translated Book IV and the possibly-spurious Book V. The entire work was published in 1693
and 1694
(reprinted in 1708
; revised by John Ozell in 1737
).
While Urquhart's original version of Rabelais has sometimes been acclaimed as a masterpiece in itself, critics have had reservations about Motteux's continuation. In part, Motteux suffered for frankly rendering the vulgarity of Rabelais, to a generation of readers less prepared to tolerate it than Urquhart's had been.
Motteux produced an important translation of Cervantes
' Don Quixote; this 4-volume 1712 edition
was credited as "translated from the original by many hands and published by Peter Motteux." Very popular in its own era, Motteux's version of the work has been condemned by later, more rigorous translators, for:
John Ormsby
, in his Introduction to his own 1885
translation of the novel, called Motteux's version "worse than worthless."
Motteux translated other works as well, one example being The Present State of the Empire of Morocco (1695) by François Pidou de Saint-Olon.
— among others. As its subtitle indicates, The Novelty was an anthology of five short plays in different genres, comedy
, tragedy
, pastoral
, masque
, and farce
.
Motteux worked in the English stage genre then called "opera," which were semi-operas somewhat comparable to modern musicals; works like The Rape of Europa by Jupiter (1694), Acis and Galatea (1701), and Arsinoe, Queen of Cyprus (1705), the first two with music by John Eccles, and the third with music by Thomas Clayton
. His final works are translations and adaptations of opera libretti from the Italian.
As was typical of Restoration
drama, Motteux's plays often adapted earlier works; and his plays in turn were adapted by others into new forms. His semi-opera The Island Princess, or the Generous Portuguese (1699) was an adaptation of John Fletcher
's play The Island Princess
, with music by Daniel Purcell
. After his death, the comic subplot of Acis and Galatea was transformed into "a comic mask" called Roger and Joan, or the Country Wedding (1739). Much later, David Garrick
adapted The Novelty into a farce titled The Lying Varlet, published in 1823.
(a personal friend) and William Congreve
among others; he published verse by the poets of the era, including Matthew Prior
and Charles Sedley
; he covered the musical career of Henry Purcell
and printed several of his songs. The Journal even featured a "Lovers' Gazette," foreshadowing the advice-to-the-lovelorn columns of later generations of popular journalism.
Though its existence was relatively brief in historical terms, the Journal provided a precedent for later publications of the same type, notably The Gentleman's Magazine
and The London Magazine. One curiosity of the Journal is that the title page of its first issue bore the motto E pluribus unum, apparently the earliest use of what would later become the motto of the United States of America. Motteux used the phrase in the sense of "one chosen among many," rather than its common later connotation. (Classicists have attempted to trace possible sources for the motto, ranging from Vergil to Aristotle
to Horace
to Cicero
to St. Augustine
.)
Motteux published early arguments in favor of the equality of the sexes; he re-titled the October 1693 issue of the Journal "The Lady's Journal," and devoted it to articles by and about women.
Life
A native of RouenRouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
, he was a French Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
who came to England in 1685 after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes
Edict of Nantes
The Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598, by Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity...
. At first he made his living as an auctioneer; by 1706 he maintained a shop in Leadenhall Street
Leadenhall Street
Leadenhall Street is a street in the City of London, formerly part of the A11. It runs east from Cornhill to Aldgate, and west vice-versa. Aldgate Pump is at the junction with Aldgate...
, selling imports from China, Japan, and India, and (in his own words) "silks, lace, linens, pictures, and other goods." He also held a position with the Post Office in the first decade of the 18th century.
Among his miscellaneous works, A Poem in Praise of Tea (1701) is arguably the best known. Motteux's end was controversial, and may have constituted a case of autoerotic asphyxiation: "His death in a bawdy house was thought to be suspicious, and caused a good deal of legal disturbance." Five people were tried for his murder, but were acquitted. He was survived by his widow Priscilla, two sons and a daughter.
Translations
Motteux is perhaps best known for completing Sir Thomas UrquhartThomas Urquhart
Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty was a Scottish writer and translator, most famous for his translation of Rabelais.-Life:...
's translation of Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel
Gargantua and Pantagruel
The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel is a connected series of five novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais. It is the story of two giants, a father and his son and their adventures, written in an amusing, extravagant, satirical vein...
. Books I and II of Urquhart's translation of Rabelais had been published in 1653
1653 in literature
The year 1653 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* James Shirley's masque Cupid and Death is performed on March 26.* Pierre Corneille retires from the theatre for six years.* John Evelyn buys Sayes Court, Deptford....
; Motteux (with outside help) revised these, completed Urquart's translation of Book III, and translated Book IV and the possibly-spurious Book V. The entire work was published in 1693
1693 in literature
The year 1693 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* July 29 - Anthony Wood is condemned in the vice-chancellor's court for certain libels against Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon; he is fined, banished from the university until he recants, and the offending pages are burned.*...
and 1694
1694 in literature
The year 1694 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Jonathan Swift is ordained a clergyman.*The death of Queen Mary II of England prompts numerous elegies.-New books:* Edmund Arwaker - An Epistle to Monsieur Boileau...
(reprinted in 1708
1708 in literature
The year 1708 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* The Battle of Oudenarde* Joseph Trapp becomes Oxford Professor of Poetry.* Edward Lhuyd becomes a Fellow of the Royal Society.-New books:...
; revised by John Ozell in 1737
1737 in literature
The year 1737 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*June 21 - The Theatrical Licensing Act is passed, introducing censorship to the London stage. Plays now require approval before production...
).
While Urquhart's original version of Rabelais has sometimes been acclaimed as a masterpiece in itself, critics have had reservations about Motteux's continuation. In part, Motteux suffered for frankly rendering the vulgarity of Rabelais, to a generation of readers less prepared to tolerate it than Urquhart's had been.
Motteux produced an important translation of Cervantes
Cervantes
-People:*Alfonso J. Cervantes , mayor of St. Louis, Missouri*Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, 16th-century man of letters*Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban composer*Jorge Cervantes, a world-renowned expert on indoor, outdoor, and greenhouse cannabis cultivation...
' Don Quixote; this 4-volume 1712 edition
1712 in literature
The year 1712 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* Lady Mary Pierrepont elopes with Edward Wortley Montagu.* Fire destroys William Bowyer's printing press.* Henry St...
was credited as "translated from the original by many hands and published by Peter Motteux." Very popular in its own era, Motteux's version of the work has been condemned by later, more rigorous translators, for:
- adopting a frivolous style, compared to the mock-serious and ironic tone of the original;
- turning Don Quixote and Sancho PanzaSancho PanzaSancho Panza is a fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote, and provides comments throughout the novel, known as sanchismos, that are a combination of broad humour, ironic Spanish proverbs,...
into buffoons; - casting the work in a "Franco-Cockney" rather than a Spanish ambience.
John Ormsby
John Ormsby
John Ormsby was a nineteenth-century British translator. He is most famous for his 1885 English translation of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote de la Mancha, perhaps the most scholarly and accurate English translation of the novel up to that time...
, in his Introduction to his own 1885
1885 in literature
The year 1885 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*February 18 - Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time*May 19 - Revised Version Old Testament published.*Thomas Hardy moves to Max Gate....
translation of the novel, called Motteux's version "worse than worthless."
Motteux translated other works as well, one example being The Present State of the Empire of Morocco (1695) by François Pidou de Saint-Olon.
Dramas
Motteux wrote a series of plays and musical librettos that were produced during the 1690s and early 18th century, including:- The Loves of Mars and Venus (1695)
- Love's a Jest (1696)
- She Ventures and He Wins (1696)
- The Novelty, or Every Act a Play (1697)
- Beauty in Distress (1698)
- Britain's Happiness (1704)
- The Amorous Miser, or the Younger the Wiser (1705)
- Thomyris, Queen of Scythia (1707)
- Love's Triumph (1708)
— among others. As its subtitle indicates, The Novelty was an anthology of five short plays in different genres, comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
, tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
, pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
, masque
Masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...
, and farce
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
.
Motteux worked in the English stage genre then called "opera," which were semi-operas somewhat comparable to modern musicals; works like The Rape of Europa by Jupiter (1694), Acis and Galatea (1701), and Arsinoe, Queen of Cyprus (1705), the first two with music by John Eccles, and the third with music by Thomas Clayton
Thomas Clayton (composer)
Thomas Clayton was an English violinist and composer. Like his father, William Clayton, he had been a member of The King's Musick at the court William III and then studied in Italy. He composed music for two English language operas which are known to have been professionally performed, Arsinoe,...
. His final works are translations and adaptations of opera libretti from the Italian.
As was typical of Restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
drama, Motteux's plays often adapted earlier works; and his plays in turn were adapted by others into new forms. His semi-opera The Island Princess, or the Generous Portuguese (1699) was an adaptation of John Fletcher
John Fletcher (playwright)
John Fletcher was a Jacobean playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; both during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's...
's play The Island Princess
The Island Princess
The Island Princess is a late Jacobean tragicomedy by John Fletcher, initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.-The play:...
, with music by Daniel Purcell
Daniel Purcell
Daniel Purcell was an English composer, the younger brother of Henry Purcell.As a teenager, Daniel Purcell joined the choir of the Chapel Royal, and in his mid-twenties he became organist of Magdalen College, Oxford. He began to compose while at Oxford, but in 1695 he moved to London to compose...
. After his death, the comic subplot of Acis and Galatea was transformed into "a comic mask" called Roger and Joan, or the Country Wedding (1739). Much later, David Garrick
David Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
adapted The Novelty into a farce titled The Lying Varlet, published in 1823.
Journalism
Motteux edited The Gentleman's Journal, or the Monthly Miscellany from its initial issue, dated January 1692, to its last of November 1694; evidence suggests he wrote most of the prose in each issue as well. (The plan was for monthly issues, though some were late, and some were missed.) Motteux may have been influenced by Le Mercure Galant, a French periodical of the 1670s devoted to Court news and gossip — though Motteux's Journal was more ambitious. The Journal published "News, History, Philosophy, Poetry, Musick, Translations, &c." It covered a wider range of topics than other periodicals of its era like The Athenian Gazette, giving it some claim as the first "general interest" magazine in English. Motteux reviewed plays by John DrydenJohn Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
(a personal friend) and William Congreve
William Congreve
William Congreve was an English playwright and poet.-Early life:Congreve was born in Bardsey, West Yorkshire, England . His parents were William Congreve and his wife, Mary ; a sister was buried in London in 1672...
among others; he published verse by the poets of the era, including Matthew Prior
Matthew Prior
Matthew Prior was an English poet and diplomat.Prior was the son of a Nonconformist joiner at Wimborne Minster, East Dorset. His father moved to London, and sent him to Westminster School, under Dr. Busby. On his father's death, he left school, and was cared for by his uncle, a vintner in Channel...
and Charles Sedley
Charles Sedley
Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Baronet was an English wit, dramatist and politician, ending his career as Speaker of the House of Commons.-Life:...
; he covered the musical career of Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
and printed several of his songs. The Journal even featured a "Lovers' Gazette," foreshadowing the advice-to-the-lovelorn columns of later generations of popular journalism.
Though its existence was relatively brief in historical terms, the Journal provided a precedent for later publications of the same type, notably The Gentleman's Magazine
The Gentleman's Magazine
The Gentleman's Magazine was founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term "magazine" for a periodical...
and The London Magazine. One curiosity of the Journal is that the title page of its first issue bore the motto E pluribus unum, apparently the earliest use of what would later become the motto of the United States of America. Motteux used the phrase in the sense of "one chosen among many," rather than its common later connotation. (Classicists have attempted to trace possible sources for the motto, ranging from Vergil to Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
to Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
to Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
to St. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
.)
Motteux published early arguments in favor of the equality of the sexes; he re-titled the October 1693 issue of the Journal "The Lady's Journal," and devoted it to articles by and about women.